Level Up

by Hadley Quinn

  “I’m ready,” she smiled. “Perfect ending to a beautiful chapter in our life.”

  I couldn’t agree more. The day I stepped foot into this house was the day my vacation at the lake had turned into a permanent vacation with Ava. No, things weren’t perfect. But they didn’t need to be.

  Bobby and Kael had lived here with us for a couple of months until they got a place of their own, and even though they were only a few minutes away, it was a big step for my friend to make. I was proud of him, though. Coming back to civilian life was different for every soldier, and although we both had our own particular struggles, we easily understood what the other was going through.

  Now Ava and I had sold her fixer upper for a good profit and used it toward another home that was just a little bigger and quite a bit newer. It was only a few blocks away from Bobby and Kael, too.

  The term “family” was growing on me pretty quickly. And as for the rest of my brothers that were still working together, I’d only seen them a couple of times since we disbanded from the lake house. I still consulted for Ronan now and then, but I’ve never agreed to another mission since helping Bobby bring home Kael. To me it had been like the final note for me to retire on, although I did get the itch now and then. I didn’t need the money, so that was never an issue, but I had always made my expertise available whenever they needed it.

  One of these days I would be ready to take on more, but never at the expense of losing Ava. Making her happy was my one and only mission right now. I’ve taken a lot of time trying to heal myself so I can be a better person for her and it’s been a struggle. I still have nightmares and I still have moments where I’m suddenly taken back to a horrific time in my life. But it never causes contention between me and my girl. We’ve promised each other to work through every incident with love and respect, and to never take the other’s feelings for granted. I’m not saying it isn’t frustrating at times, but Ava certainly has taken care of me in more ways than I could have ever imagined. The scary moments have lessened quite a bit, but I can’t wait for the day I might rid my subconscious of those memories entirely.

  One day it could happen, and I wasn’t going to give up hope.

  ***

  “Why can’t you tell me where we’re going?” Ava questioned me again. “You know I hate surprises.”

  “Yes, I know that without a doubt,” I answered dryly.

  She smacked me in the arm from the passenger’s seat. “And you’re wicked for always trying to torture me.”

  I gave her a huge smile. It was true; I loved to see her squirm. And this particular surprise made me excited but worried at the same time.

  After driving for an hour, she finally seemed to realize where we might be headed. She gave me a funny look but didn’t say anything. I’m sure her mind was going a thousand miles a minute, trying to figure out why we were headed to the lake. I tried to keep her busy by talking about the new house. With Bobby’s help, we’d moved everything the evening before. The only thing that I really put together for the night was the bed, and after a long night of sleep and lovemaking, I told Ava we had plans and would finish unpacking after we got back.

  When I took the turn for Passion Lake, Ava gave me another suspicious look. She knew not to ask though. When I wanted to surprise her, she couldn’t change my mind. Well there was that one time she played dirty and stripped naked in front of me, insisting that she wasn’t going on date night with me until I told her where we were going. Yeah, that was a sneaky trick. But well worth caving in for, that’s for damn sure.

  “Um, okay, I recognize this…” she slowly spoke as I pulled down a narrow driveway. When I stopped the truck on a flat grassy landing that faced the lake, she smiled. “Ooh, yes, I remember this spot. We did the nasty in that spot right there,” she pointed.

  I laughed because I’ve never been able to come up here without that memory being the first one to pop into my head. Then I climbed out of the truck and came around to her side to open the door. She gave me a sassy smile, obviously to let me know she was still a little confused but trying to be patient.

  I took her hand and walked several feet to the middle of the grassy area and stopped, facing the lake. “So? Think this is a good spot for a house?”

  She only stared at me for a few seconds.

  I pointed to a small clearing to the right. “We could do a guest cabin there?” Then I pointed to the side of it. “Boat garage for all the lake toys right there?” I pulled her along, moving closer to the lake, and stopped. Opening my arms wide I added, “Big deck right here with a hot tub and a fire pit, and a huge picnic table so our friends can come visit. But…only if you want a big house here. We can just do a cabin up here instead. It doesn’t really matter to me as long as you’re happy, babe.”

  I looked at Ava and paused. She was still speechless but she looked so damn adorable I kinda wanted to just pull the blanket out of the truck—

  “Is this place for sale?” she finally blurted out. “I mean even if it is, I’m betting it’s an outrageous amount of money, Gabe. This spot is—is absolutely amazing. It’s private and…it’s just gorgeous. But purchasing land on this lake—”

  “Is doable,” I interrupted. I smiled and added, “Because it’s already done. I already bought it, Ava.”

  Her jaw about hit her chest. “What? Are you serious?”

  I nodded again. “I bought it back in October. I had considered buying your dad’s place instead but…I just thought this would be better. Start new. Something that’s just for us and our own memories. So… What do you think?”

  “What do I think?” she lightly laughed, still blown away by the announcement. “I think this is absolutely amazing, Gabe. Are you sure? I mean do you really want to live on a lake? What about the new house and school and—and whatever your job is gonna consist of…?”

  I kissed her forehead and then her lips. It was necessary; I couldn’t help it. “Well obviously there won’t be a house here overnight, so we have time to figure out what we want. And it can be a vacation home or full time home…whatever you want, Ava. I just want you to be happy. You can enjoy life and paint and even if we just spend summer here because you want to teach art in a school, that’s fine with me too.”

  “And what about your job, Gabe. What are you going to do? Please don’t tell me you’re a billionaire and can afford living here full time and never have to work another day of your life.”

  I arched an eyebrow at her and smiled. We’d discussed finances before and she knew I could take care of myself pretty well, but we still had separate bank accounts. I’d wanted to add her to mine several months ago but she refused. What she didn’t know was that I’d already added her to it.

  “Well, I’m not exactly a billionaire…” I began, thoroughly amused by the look on her face. “But I do have some savings. And as for work, you know I help Ronan out now and then.”

  She sighed, and I wasn’t surprised when she said, “But you get bored with it. I can tell.”

  That made me smile. It was true, but only because I didn’t feel like I ever did anything hands-on for the team. Sure, I help out with a lot of stuff like tactical plans and other little things I can do for them from home, but it was way different than how life used to be for me.

  “I’m happy about this,” I said, pointing between the two of us. “And what you said the other day about buying another house to fix up and sell? I think that’s a great idea. I’d love to do that. I love the physical work and it’ll be good for me.”

  “Really?” she slowly smiled. “Well…that’s great. It really is. And I’d love to be a part of it, too. I mean as long as I don’t get in your way too much.”

  “Pssh, are you kidding? As long as we have some down time now and then…” I winked at her and she laughed.

  “Uh huh, use me for my body,” she nodded.

  I knew she was joking and I laughed out loud. Just hearing those words come out of her mouth—reciting something I’d said last sum
mer at the cabin—made my heart pound with reassurance. I knew for sure this was the best thing in my life.

  This girl right here.

  I grabbed her left hand and pressed the back of her fingers to my lips. “You’re right, and I want to use your body for one more thing, if you don’t mind.”

  Her smile lit up my world once again. But she was thinking along the lines of one thing while I was thinking another.

  I turned her around so her back was against me and we faced the lake. Leaning down, I kissed the side of her neck and her cheek and whispered, “I love you, Ava. You’ve saved me more times than I can count. I will always take care of you and I’ll always protect you with my life.”

  I felt her sigh and she turned her head to set her cheek against my chest. “I love you too, Gabe. Forever. Always. Whichever one is longest.”

  Smiling, I reached into my pocket and pulled out what was in it. When I lifted her hand again and slid an engagement ring onto her finger, I felt her gasp as she turned her head to look at her hand. While she studied it, I wrapped my arms around her from behind again and held her close. I closed my eyes, ignoring the pounding in my chest so I could feel everything going on with Ava. I didn’t have to see her face; I just had to connect with the emotions buzzing through her body.

  Softly I asked, “Will you marry me, Ava?”

  I knew she was crying. Silently, but I could feel it. I leaned down to kiss the side of her face again and felt her wet tears against my lips. She turned around to look at me, and HOLY SHIT my heart was about to jump out of my chest. It was a moment of elation, excitement; the realization that nothing was going to get any better than this level in life. She smiled at me and I wanted to kiss her damn face off. It was the longest five seconds of my entire life—

  “Of course I’ll marry you,” she whispered. “Yes, Gabe. Yes, yes, yes!”

  She threw her arms around me, and then her legs did the same, squeezing tight around my waist while I held her.

  “I love you so much,” she barely murmured against my face. “And I’m so proud of you. You’ve finally decided to level up, huh?”

  Surprised, I set her down in front of me. I couldn’t help smiling when I said, “Hey, what do you know about that?”

  She bit her lip for a few seconds, like she wasn’t going to tell me. But then she laughed out loud. “Oh, let’s just say I knew about it a long time ago and I’ve just been patiently waiting for you to slay whatever dragon you needed to slay in the last level.”

  I shook my head at her, impressed by her wit. But she never ceased to amaze me. The girl had never pushed me to get married but I always knew she wanted to. And even when her mom would make negative comments about my lack of commitment to her, Ava never wavered. These past few months had been some of the best months of my life, and I looked forward to many, many more.

  “Well thank you for being there every time I failed,” I told her, kissing her forehead.

  “You never failed, Gabe. You only got better each time.”

  Hell, can you blame me for being so damn in love with this woman? I guess some things are inevitable, and Ava has taught me so much about love and life and appreciating every little small success because it all matters. Every bit of it.

  “Okay, so, if this is your piece of land now…” she smiled at me, looking directly at the spot we’d made love on during the summer.

  “Us,” I corrected. “It belongs to us. Your name is on it too.”

  She stared at me for several seconds and looked down at her hand again. She wiggled her fingers and we both watched the brilliant colors reflect off of every angle of the one-carat princess cut diamond.

  When she looked at me again she said, “Fine. Us. So let’s break this place in, soldier.” She walked away toward the lake, and as she did, she began taking off articles of clothing. I was still standing there with my tongue hanging out of my mouth when she looked back in just her panties and said, “You coming big guy, or what?” And then she slid the last piece of clothing off and headed for the water.

  Yeah, I’ll be coming, I smirked to myself. And so will you.

  I’m pretty sure I ran, trying to rip my clothes off my body as fast as I could without crashing on my face. Thank God I’m a coordinated fella because that woman should come with a warning label.

  She was standing on the edge of the shallow water that met up with the grass. I knew this area was pretty awesome for swimming because I’d tried it myself just to make sure it was good enough for my girl.

  Ava was eyeing me as I approached. I love that look in her eye, the one that I never mistake for anything except her desire to have me. I pulled her close and kissed her, and she grabbed my hand to lead me out into the water.

  Holy shit it was cold!

  “Not too deep, I don’t want to lose my ring,” she said as she stopped in water that was only waist high.

  She continued to kiss me, and even though I was fully erect, I couldn’t help but joke, “The only thing my depth has caused you to lose is your virginity.”

  Her laughter is amazing. I love making her laugh. But I picked her up and she wrapped her arms around my neck and her legs around my waist. We broke in our lake in this position, and then I took her to the grassy bank to finish it off. It was dirty and messy and ohhhh so fucking worth it.

  We got dressed and walked back up to the truck. I grabbed a blanket to wrap her up in and we sat and talked for over an hour about our plans; the wedding, the new house, the cabin we decided to build on the new property… It truly was a future she’d always promised me: full of happiness to drown out the bad.

  After Ava was settled in the passenger’s seat, I made my way around the truck and sat next to her. She scooted over and laid her head on my shoulder as I started the engine. The cab was already starting to smell of dirt, grass, and river water and it made me smile. I had the best feeling take root deep in my chest. I knew without a doubt…

  She’ll never leave my side.

  The End

  Other books by Hadley Quinn:

  Kiss This

  Tame This

  Only This

  The Fighter’s Block

  To connect with Hadley:

  www.hadleyquinnauthor.com

  www.facebook.com/AuthorHadleyQuinn

  www.twitter.com/theHadleyQuinn

  www.hadleyquinnauthor.blogspot.com

  From the Author:

  Thank you to all that took the time to read Level Up. I wrote this story back in 2011 and it ended up getting pushed aside for other projects. I’m not sure what made me look for it, but when I pulled it up to read again, I decided it was a story I wanted to share. Maybe the timing wasn’t right a few years ago, I don’t know, but I believe everything happens for a reason and I’m not going to question it. It got freshened up a bit and re-edited, and although I know it has a different writing style like a couple of my other stories, I decided to keep it that way. I love dual point-of-view in third person, and I love adding an epilogue that surprises people when it switches to first person. Finishing a story that way has a unique feel to me that maybe only I appreciate.

  If you’ve read my work before, thank you for sticking with me. If this is your first time, thank you for giving me a chance. I value each and every reader that is willing to spend time with my words. It means a lot to me and I hope you return for more!

  Hadley Quinn